University of Maryland, Baltimore County art historian James Smalls will speak on the influence of the Senegalese dancer and artist/model Feral Benga on early to mid-twentieth century queer visual representation.

Smalls writes on representations of homosexuality in Western art, with a focus on the intersections of race, gender, and queer sexuality in the art and visual culture of the nineteenth century, as well as the art and visual culture of the black diaspora.

He is the author of Homosexuality in Art (Parkstone Press, 2003) and The Homoerotic Photography of Carl Van Vechten: Public Face, Private Thoughts (Temple University Press, 2006). He has published essays in a number of prominent journals, including American Art, French Historical Studies, Third Text, Art Journal, and Art Criticism.

Sponsored by Lectures and Concerts, the Gay and Lesbian Studies Program, the English Department, the Art History Department, and the Africana Studies Program.